


When it Rains it Pours

by Nik_Knight



Category: Team Fortress 2
Genre: Character Study, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, Tenth class
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-27
Updated: 2019-07-27
Packaged: 2020-07-21 07:47:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,843
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19998388
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nik_Knight/pseuds/Nik_Knight
Summary: A rainy day on the base leads the Hacker and the Hunter outside to enjoy the weather. The hacker reflects on her occupation and confides in Hunter about her struggle to remain morally afloat.





	When it Rains it Pours

**Author's Note:**

  * For [the-hunter-of-teufort](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=the-hunter-of-teufort).



> This is a character study of both tenth classes and the roles they fill in the dynamic of being on the same team. This is my first ao3 fic. The Hacker is mine, and the Hunter belongs to the-hunter-of-teufort on tumblr. More fic of the Hacker to come. Enjoy.

When it Rains it Pours

“Hunter. Hey, hey, Hunter,” The Hacker whispered to the older mercenary. “You hear that? Do you hear that outside?”

Hunter looked up from her cross-stitch project and turned to the Hacker who was pulling on her sleeve.

“Hear what? The rain?” She put the project down on the coffee table and turned her head to the large rec room window. It had indeed started to rain, and with no battle today, the Hacker seemed to have enough energy to be excited about... something. 

“Yes, the rain!” She smiled widely at Hunter. “Come outside with me, please?”

“You want to go out in the rain?”

“Yeah, it sounds so good, and it’s not as nice to listen to inside. Well, except for in Spy’s room, but he’s out of town today. You like the rain, too right? Come outside with me, pleeeeeease?” Hacker gently shook Hunter from side to side.

Hunter laughed and stood. “All right, okay, fine. I’ll come outside with you. Just make sure to wear a jacket so you don’t get sick; you know Medic will kill us if he finds out we went out in the rain without proper—“

“Sure, sure, whatever,” Hacker interrupted. “Just meet me by the garage in five, okay?” She bounced onto her feet and ran down the hall.

“Okay,” Hunter said into the empty room.  
***  
Five minutes rolled around, and the Hunter managed to put on a light jacket, grab an umbrella, and make her way to the garage. The sound of a wrench whapping against metal let her know that Engie was nearby in his workshop attached to the garage by an open door. She stepped in and passed through the few cars that sat inside. This included Engie’s truck, Spy’s Mercedes, and Medic’s van ambulance. The large garage door was already wide open, and the rain poured heavily outside. In the back of her mind Hunter wondered if the sewers would flood again, possibly making tomorrow’s match canceled.

Just outside the door was the Hacker decked out in Wellington boots, a bright yellow raincoat, and hat. Despite looking a tad ridiculous, the look fitted the quirky little Hacker. She was standing quite still and staring quietly into the scenery. As Johanna approached, she could see the hacker smiling, and she couldn’t help but smile as well.

“You know, it rains a lot more at Mannworks,” Nikole said as the Hunter approached. “That’s definitely my favorite place to be. It’s always overcast, which makes it easier to see without the sun in your eyes.” She didn’t look over to her friend, but just continued staring into the gallons of water falling from the sky. Her wide eyes made her look like a cat about to pounce.

“Sounds like the perfect place, yeah?” Johanna leaned against the tall umbrella she thought to bring along. She understood that the Hacker dealt with those robots more often than any other class, including herself. Mannworks looked to be her home away from Teufort. “Wouldn’t you miss the sun after a while?”

“Nope,” Nikki said simply, then leapt out into the storm. Soon the young girl was jumping and splashing from puddle to puddle gleefully. There wasn’t much outside on this end of the base with the exception of Sniper’s camper, a few random patches of grass, and a small ravine that ran around the back of the base. Hunter swiftly popped open the umbrella and stepped out to join Hacker yet stayed far enough as not to get splashed. 

Hunter had heard about Mannworks before. There were lots of rickety wooden buildings across the map standing between respawn and the robot hangar, but she’d mostly just seen pictures and a top-down view of the map. RED would go there at seemingly random times to fight of waves of robots. She found herself fighting bots in other maps like Coal Town. 

“Yo, Jo! Look at what I found!” The Hacker trudged back to Hunter in the mud and held up something in her hands. Between Nik’s hands was an adult bull frog, the extra chubby kind. “Oh my god, Jo, I’m gonna die! Just look at how fat it is; it’s like a balloon!”

Indeed, it was, but it also seemed uncomfortable in the Hacker’s grip. “Yeah, it’s real chubby alright, but why don’t you put the poor guy down? You’re holding him a little tight.”

“Oh!” She eases up her grip a little. “Sorry, Mr. Frog,” she crouched and placed the frog down, where it proceeded to sit and ribbit. Hacker rubbed its head with her finger for good measure. If Johanna didn’t fight with (and sometimes against) the Hacker in battle, she would never suspect the girl was a killer.

“You’re cute, Nik,” Johanna smiled. They didn’t usually use their first names around the others, well no, Nik did. She wasn’t afraid to use her name, claiming no one could use it to dig up anything on her.

“I get that a lot.” She poked the now seemingly unflappable frog.

“Makes me wonder how you even ended up out here.”

“Same as you,” she said, unbothered. The frog gave a little ‘ribbit.’

“Same as me?” Hunter doubted that had the same story.

“I’m good at what I do.” She stood up and wiped her hands on her rain coat. “I can hack. What else is there?” She began to walk towards the ravine. 

“There’s shooting. Fighting. Killing.” Johanna shrugged and followed to make sure the girl didn’t slip and drown. There was a wooden dock built into the ravine. Hunter herself was often here on rainy days just enjoying the sounds.

“There is,” Nik replied. “But it’s nothing that can’t be learned. Hey, you think there’s a tentaspy in this water?” Here, the two women sat on the little dock. Th rain still fell, but it felt calmer here, even if the conversation felt deeper (at least to Hunter.)

“A what?”

“Tentaspy. You know, like a Spy, but with tentacles instead of legs.”

“No, I doubt it... Hey, you get more up close and personal with the bots than I do. What’s it like?”

“What’s what like?” Nik asked, kicking her legs to and fro.

“Being a hacker. I’ve never mentioned, but we’ve got pretty different jobs. Is it boring, or is it as cool as it looks?” She smiled. Nik chuckled and gave Hunter a light shove.

“You’re flattering me, I know it!” Nik smiled back and shrugged. “Sometimes I feel like you could be compared to Sniper, right?”

“Sure,” Hunter said, not exactly knowing where this was going.

“Well who would you compare me to?”

She had to think about that. The Hacker class seemed to pop out of nowhere, but its necessity was obvious with the arrival of Gray’s robots. Before most of the technological know-how came from... “Engie?”

Hacker laughed at this. “You’d think, right? No, it’s more like being a Spy.”

Johanna raised an eyebrow to this. It was true, Spies could sap sentries and robots, but other than that? She couldn’t see the correlation. “A Spy?”

“I run around fuckin’ with other people’s tech all day, stabbin’ dudes who get in my way, then shooting the rest. Only difference is that he has a cloak, but we can’t all be invisible when we want, can we?” She nudged Hunter again.

“I’d call mine more of a camouflage—“

“Yeah, still.” She shrugged again. “Hackin’ just more dirty work. Nothin’ interesting to it, I guess.” She looked back down at the flowing water. Despite the rain, the air around the Hacker seemed to dampen. Hunter frowned. She could tell that the Hacker made herself upset about something. She didn’t want to bring any painful feelings up, but the big sister in her wouldn’t let it go.

“Nikki, what’s wrong?” Hunter asked after another minute. If something was bothering the Hacker, she wanted to help. Nik didn’t say anything for a few moments, but eventually spoke up.

“Ever wonder why Spy and I are such close pals?” Nik asked. Hunter nodded. The RED Spy and the Hacker were rarely apart when they were both on base. She was the only one amongst them that could get into his room uninvited and not get sent into respawn. (She was also the only one who could fit into the ventilation well enough to pop into his room without the key.) The Spy was definitely as protective of her as he was with his own son on the team. They often made fun of him for being a ‘Spy Dad’

“Besides the fact that he’s your Spy Dad?”

“Well, I guess, but we’re close. You know why? It’s ‘cause we’re both cheaters.” She stopped kicking her feet.

“Cheaters?” Hunter didn’t understand.

“We both use sneaky tactics to meet our goals, and nobody trusts us. We fight dirty, dishonorably, you could say.”

“I wouldn’t say that,” Hunter tried to dispel any doubt.

“Well, you’d be right if you did.” Here, Hunter really started to worry. Hacker’s shoulders locked and her muscles stiffened. She looked smaller, more guarded than she’s ever seen her. The rain poured on, filling the stinging silence

“I break gadgets. Hack into computers and bots. Bypass overrides and firewalls. I cut corners. I find the easy way out. I’m just as bad as the snake.”

The snake. It was often a name thrown around by Engineers and Snipers when addressing a detested Spy. It wasn’t a term the Hacker used to describe a Spy.

“Who said that to you?” Hunter asked.

“Huh?”

“That doesn’t sound like something you’d say.” She crossed her arms, still holding the umbrella. “Who told you those nasty things?”

“Well, the BLU Engineer, I guess.” She shrugged and turned away. “He’s right though, isn’t he?”

Hunter shook her head. “Just because you’ve gotten the better of him a couple of times doesn’t mean you’re a cheater. You’re just doing your job, like you said, because you’re good at it.”

There was a longer pause, but at least it wasn’t so suffocating this time.

“Well, I’m not the sweet and honest girl you see either.” There was a lift in Hacker’s voice, nearly just as happy and simple as before. Almost. “I’m super tough, and I’ve got enough tricks up my sleeves to keep you on your toes, so you best watch out!” She grinned under her yellow rain hat. 

Hunter gave a gentle smile in return. She felt that Hacker’s worries weren’t entirely quelled, but for now, this would do. Whatever was bothering the younger one was something beyond her range of understanding, most likely, but she’d do what she could to keep the girl’s spirits up.

“Yeah, I bet.” Johanna stood to help Hacker up. “We’ve been out here a while. Want to go back inside?”

“Yeah, I could use a nap.”

“At four PM?”

“Yep.”

“All right,” Hunter chuckled. “Fair enough.”

***

Eight months earlier

Do you ever do something and realize that it's wrong...? Like, no one’s there to stop you, but there's just that feeling in your gut that it's bad? 

Nik Knight stood next to a small fire with kindling of twigs, grass and metal scrap. She shouldn't have done this. They were her friends, and out here in the middle of nowhere, she had no one else. Who could she trust if not her teammates? 

But the math and science just made too much sense. Nothing ever connected as well as this had. Her small history of hacking into pacemakers would give her the edge she needed to ensure her own safety.

But that isn't what she wanted.

Not really.

They were no good guys, nor heroes out here in the robot war, but she wasn't evil. At least she hoped not. Her mind flipped between questioning if people were inherently bad or good. She supposed it didn't matter. She was here now in the cold desert with her hands in her jeans pockets to keep them warm. Her eyes usually filled with light and the sense of adventure had dulled. She didn't like the other mercs to see her like this. She was supposed to be happy and annoying and the light behind the front, but now she was little more than a fleshy ghost in front of the dying fire that now glowed a faint blue from the magnesium in the scraps. 

Back in the Gravel wars she was tasked to do little more than take out the Engineer's toys and maybe snag the intelligence. On one occasion she had managed to corner the BLU Engineer after taking out his sentry. She was on fire that day, both figuratively and literally, and before she stuck her sword through his throat, he spat at her. 

"Yer just a dirty hacker."

It should have bothered her more than it did now, but the more she thought about it, the truer his accusation seemed. She was indeed a hacker, an offensive hacker at that. As such she tried to find every little way to make her life easier. She had put malware on most of the computers in both Intel rooms and built herself a back door in case she needed to change bits of her file. Back in her time, she had even killed a terrible old man by stopping his pacemaker. It was for a good price though, so at the time it did not bother her.

But here she was, staring at the last struggling flames of her latest plan to cheat at life. Her chest felt cold an empty. Even now the new feeling of loneliness gripped her gut as the last bit of flames were whisked away in the breeze.

"I guess I am just a dirty hacker."

The smell of smoke had been masked by the burning metal, but now as the charred remains cooled, her keen nose sniffed out the scent of imported clove cigarettes.

"Do not give yourself so much credit, mon ami." The Spy stepped beside her and glanced at her when she did not respond.

Moving his gaze back to the ground where there had once been a flame, he took another drag of his cigarette and tossed it into the rest of the ash. "Experiment gone wrong?" He asked. Nikki only shook her head. It was ironic how of all the original mercs, she had come to trust the Spy the most. 

"Experiment gone right," she finally said when Spy did not move his gaze off her. "I did wrong. By all of you. I'm sorry." The hacker rarely ever apologized, even if she was indeed guilty of many of the mishaps that happened during the war. She had always been impulsive, but now she had put her teammates at risk. 

"Oh?"

"I dug too deep," she began. Pulling her hand out of her pocket, she presented him with her own Über Implant. It still had bits of brown blood stains on it, as if it been removed somewhat recently. When he gave her a quizzical look and put it back into her pocket and explained. "I figured out how to hack into it; how to overcharge it and make your heart beat so fast that it explodes in your chest."

Spy nearly took a step back, but at the own fear of the implant in his heart and the knowledge of the girl's anxious tendencies, he stayed. She pointed to the charred rubble and shrugged. "That was all of it. All the blueprints. All the hacking devices that could do that. I shouldn't have even thought about it but--" she cut herself off when's sob nearly escaped her throat. She really was evil, wasn't she? She lowered her head and her right hand came up to catch it. "M'sorry," she finally mumbled out. "I'm just a dirty hacker trying to get the edge on my own friends." She flopped down onto the dirt and sat forward leaning into the lingering heat of the ashes. "I'm just so... scared." Her shoulders visibly shook as she repressed her sobs into her chest. 

The spy just stood for a moment and waited to hear her confession. After a few more seconds, he knelt and put a hand on her shoulder, but quickly took it away when she flinched. 

"... I understand."

"They're gonna kill me when they find out," she murmured. "The plans are destroyed, too. Everything will keep going without me..."

"Nikole," the spy sighed. "You are not evil nor are you innocent. None of us are. You do not think I have blackmail on everyone to get my edge? They will understand. You can help us fix this."

"But I MADE this."

"And you can fix it. Come on. It is cold out here and we cannot have our hacker catching a cold. Our friends would be upset."

"They don’t even know."

"If you want, they will," At this spy helped the girl off the ground and began to lead her back to the base. "And they will understand."

"M'sorry."

"I know."

**Author's Note:**

> Please let me know any thoughts you had while reading, and please let me know if you'd like more fics on the Hacker. Thank you for taking the time to read!


End file.
